In the year 1638, the Doctor sent a statue called Nemesis -- made out of
deadly living validium, which was once Gallifrey's last line of defense
-- into orbit around the Earth. In 1988, the Nemesis statue's orbit
decays and it returns to Earth, where it is pursued by three factions:
the Cybermen, a Neo-Nazi named De Flores, and the mad, time-travelling
Lady Peinforte, who nearly gained possession of the statue in 1738 and
who knows the darkest secrets of the Doctor's past.

Production

In early 1987, Doctor Who script editor Andrew Cartmel made it
known across the BBC that he was actively recruiting new writers to the
programme. Amongst those who kept an eye out for writers who might be
suitable for Doctor Who was his colleague Caroline Oulton; having
steered Ben Aaronovitch in Cartmel's direction (eventually resulting in
Remembrance Of The Daleks), she provided
the same advice to Kevin Clarke. Clarke had been invited to participate
in the BBC writer's training course on the basis of a stage play he had
also directed, and had been commissioned to write an episode of Wish
Me Luck.

Clarke was not a fan of science-fiction, and only reluctantly met with
Cartmel in March. Nothing came of this discussion, but when Clarke had
little success securing work elsewhere, he made contact with Cartmel again
in September. His original idea was a standard Doctor Who
adventure, whereas the script editor was eager for his writers to blaze
new territory. However, Clarke impressed Cartmel enough that, later the
same month, he was offered a three-part adventure. This would be made
entirely on location, and would serve as a celebration of Doctor
Who's twenty-fifth anniversary on November 23rd, 1988.

Kevin Clarke wanted to reveal that the Doctor was God,
but John Nathan-Turner balked at the religious connotations

At the time, Cartmel was working on ideas to reintroduce an element of
mystery into Doctor Who; this gibed with Clarke's interest in
making the question of the Doctor's identity a key point of his serial. At
one point, Clarke wanted to reveal that the Doctor was God -- or, at
least, a god-like figure who walked amongst mortals and possessed
tremendous powers, but sometimes let events run away from him. However,
producer John Nathan-Turner balked at introducing such religious
connotations into the series. Clarke also devised the concept of a
meteor with a baleful effect on the Earth's history; with Cartmel's
input, this developed into a weapon-bearing silver figure named Nemesis,
after the Greek goddess of retribution. It was Nathan-Turner who added
the final key element to Clarke's tale, when he observed that the
obvious monsters to include in a silver anniversary adventure were the
silver giants themselves: the Cybermen. For his part, Clarke had hoped
to use the Daleks, but these had already been earmarked for
Aaronovitch's serial.

The first episode of Clarke's adventure was commissioned on November 17th
as “The Harbinger”. The writer incorporated several of his own
interests, including jazz music and Jacobean drama (Clarke having been a
student of the history of the English theatre). The latter inspired Lady
Peinforte, whose name came from the seventeen-century torture peine
forte et dure (literally “long and hard trauma”) in which
increasingly heavy weights were placed on the body. The Nemesis statue had
in part drawn upon Adolf Hitler's obsession with the Spear of Destiny,
the lance which the Bible describes as having pierced the side of
the crucified Jesus, and which was now reputed to be a relic bestowing
great powers upon its bearer. This suggested the inclusion of the Nazi
faction in “The Harbinger”, while De Flores' name was a
reference to a murderous servant in 1622 tragedy The Changeling by
Thomas Middleton and William Rowley.

The formal commission for episodes two and three on January 20th, 1988
still described the serial as “The Harbinger”, but it was
around this time that it was retitled “Nemesis”. Late changes
saw the living element “makarianite” renamed
“validium”, as well a the introduction of Ace's ghetto
blaster, which took the place of the TARDIS scanner and eliminated the
need for any studio recording. The American tourist was conceived as the
male Milton P Remington, and Nathan-Turner hoped to interest Larry
Hagman, who starred as tycoon JR Ewing in the American soap opera
Dallas; Nathan-Turner had been put in touch with Hagman's
representatives by Kate O'Mara, who played the Rani. When this didn't
pan out, the role was rewritten as the female Miss Hackensack, and
offered to Tony Award-winning actress Dolores Gray. Gray agreed to
appear in Doctor Who, but objected to the character's name.

John Nathan-Turner hoped that a cameo role in Doctor Who might appeal to Prince Edward, the Earl
of Wessex

Another individual whom Nathan-Turner hoped to attract to
“Nemesis” was none other than Prince Edward, the Earl of
Wessex and third son of Queen Elizabeth. Edward was a fan of the
entertainment industry and was working as a production assistant for
Andrew Lloyd Webber; Nathan-Turner hoped that a cameo role in Doctor
Who might appeal to him, especially given the Windsor Castle setting
of “Nemesis”. However, Edward's duties with Webber's company
precluded his involvement in the serial, and he was replaced in the script
by his mother, who would be portrayed by an imitator. Nathan-Turner was
also disappointed to learn that his request to film at Windsor Castle was
denied, as permission to do so was only granted to documentary projects.
Yet another frustration for the producer came when his proposal for
additional funding for “Nemesis”, in view of its celebratory
status, was rejected by BBC1 Controller Jonathan Powell.

By the middle of May, Clarke's adventure bore the expanded title Silver
Nemesis. It would be made as Serial 7K, with director Chris Clough
handling it alongside the studio-only The Happiness
Patrol, much as he had helmed the tandem of Delta And The Bannermen and Dragonfire the year before. Cast as De Flores
was Anton Diffring. The German film star found the scripts confusing, but
took the role because it meant he could watch coverage of the Wimbledon
tennis tournament, which was unavailable where he lived in the south of
France.

Pre-production on Silver Nemesis was complicated when the discovery
of asbestos at BBC Television Centre forced the rearrangement of the
recording dates for the preceding story, The Greatest
Show In The Galaxy. As a result, neither Sylvester McCoy nor
Sophie Aldred was available for rehearsals for Serial 7K. This was one of
several factors which helped to set Clough and his team badly behind at
their first location, Greenwich Gas Works in London. Filming there took
place from June 22nd to 24th for material at the Nemesis statue's landing
site and in the hangar. The slow progress played havoc with the schedule,
causing some shots to be abandoned, while others were rewritten on the
spot. For instance, although the extras playing the Cybermen's servitors
(referred to as the Walkmen) were unavailable on the 24th, Clough was left
with no choice but to record some scenes in which they were intended to
appear. For the sequence in which the policemen were gassed, visual
effects assistant Mike Tucker suggested that the Cybermats (not seen since
1975's Revenge Of The Cybermen) could be
used. He went as far as building a new Cybermat prop, but Cartmel disliked
the creatures and the idea was dropped.

For the sequence in which the policemen were gassed, Mike
Tucker suggested that the Cybermats could be used

Standing in for Windsor Castle was Arundel Castle in Arundel, West Sussex,
where production resumed from June 26th to 29th. On the 27th, a number of
familiar faces returned to Doctor Who to play some of the tourists.
This was intended as a salute to Nathan-Turner: the producer believed that
he would be leaving Doctor Who at the end of the season, and at
this point Silver Nemesis was planned to be its final story. The
lone actor in the group was Nicholas Courtney, who had played Brigadier
Lethbridge-Stewart since the Sixties; this was his first Doctor Who
appearance since The Five Doctors a
half-decade earlier. Others in the crowd included directors Andrew Morgan,
Peter Moffatt and Fiona Cumming (with her husband, production manager
Ian Fraser), writer Graeme Curry, and production unit manager Kathleen
Bidmead. Anthony Ainley (the Master) and writer Stephen Wyatt had hoped to
appear, but were ultimately unable to participate. Also appearing was
Clarke himself; in other scenes, he played a pedestrian while Lady
Peinforte and Richard wandered the streets of Windsor, and a motorist
who passed by the hitchhiking Peinforte.

Cast and crew remained in Arundel on June 30th to film various street
scenes, including all those involving Mrs Remington (as Miss Hackensack
had now been renamed). Early in the day, Dolores Gray was badly upset when
she discovered that she had left behind a bag containing expensive
jewellery on the street where she had been collected. Happily, the bag and
jewels were found and couriered to her at Arundel. On July 1st, material
in Lady Peinforte's garden and study, as well as the tea room, was taped
at St Mary's House and Gardens in Bramber, West Sussex. The next day,
another West Sussex location was a private residence called Casa Del Mar
in Goring-by-Sea, which served as De Flores' South American retreat.

Finally, on July 5th, Black Jack's Mill Restaurant in Harefield, Middlesex
provided the garden where the Doctor and Ace listen to the jazz concert,
as well as the riverbank into which they dive to make their escape.
Clarke was delighted that Courtney Pine had agreed to appear in
Silver Nemesis, as he was an admirer of the musician's work.
Indeed, he had written these scenes with Pine in mind, in that hope that
he might get the chance to meet him. As it happened, Pine -- who had
risen to prominence with his 1986 debut album Journey To The Urge
Within -- was a fan of Doctor Who, and convinced his
bandmates to participate.

In a deleted scene, Ace passed by an 18th-century portrait
of herself from a future adventure

In part because of the limited rehearsals, the original edit of Silver
Nemesis proved to be much too long. Various elements were lost or
truncated, most notably a subplot in which Karl appears to betray De
Flores to the Cybermen, who plan to convert both men. As written, De
Flores' attempt to get away by using gold dust was foiled by this ruse,
and Karl later freed him once the Cybermen were lulled into a false sense
of security and had left them almost unguarded. All that survived of this
was the gold dust escape (now successful) and some brief glimpses of De
Flores wearing the Cyber-headphones. Another omission was a Windsor Castle
scene in which Ace passed by a portrait of herself (originally, a
statue) which she did not recognise; this was painted by the design team
in the style of Thomas Gainsborough, implying that an 18th-century
adventure awaited in her future.

As it transpired, Silver Nemesis was not the final story of Season
Twenty-Five. Nathan-Turner was firm that part one should be broadcast on
November 23rd, but a four-week delay to the start of the season meant
that The Greatest Show In The Galaxy would
now follow it in transmission order. Unusually, episodes two and three
aired in New Zealand on November 25th, as part of a screening of the
entire adventure. This marked just the second occasion (after The Five Doctors) on which a Doctor Who
episode had its premiere broadcast outside the UK. Meanwhile, Silver
Nemesis proved to be Kevin Clarke's only Doctor Who serial.
He continued to work in television, with credits including The
Bill, The Last Detective and Casualty. His
novelisation of Silver Nemesis was published by Target Books in
1989.